Monthly international poetry feedback session to polish your poems

How do you make a good poems really good? Join a high quality online poetry feedback group to focus on honing your poetry. Receive encouragement, inspiration and constructive feedback, and get your poems ready for submission. These are small monthly international groups with rich discussion and learning.

Workshops are SMALL GROUPS, limited to 6 participants only, so we really get to know each other and our poetry.

Who is it for? Poets who are generating work and passionate about continuing to expand their practice of writing poetry. Both assessing the work of others and listening to how people receive your work is crucial in building skills in editing and re-drafting to create the best poems. These workshops are for intermediate to advanced poets. It's immensely enjoyable!

How does it work?  The groups usually meet once a month for a six month term. We use Zoom, ideally the functionality on a laptop/computer rather than a phone. There's usually also an inspiring poem of the month to discuss as well as the group's poems.  

The start time is, for example, 9am UK// 5pm Perth // 7 pm Sydney, or a bit later, depending on what suits those in the group the most. The groups are usually Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Sessions are 2.5 hours long with a short break. I open the session 15mins early for an optional social chat and to settle in.

Participants send a poem to me about 4 days prior to each session (you'll get a reminder email), so we can all have plenty of time to read them in advance of the feedback session.

Cost:  6 sessions per term £165 or AUD$325

If you're interested to join the waiting list get in touch and send me a couple of your poems.  CONTACT ME

Next Term starts in May. These groups are popular and people tend to stay in them for a long time - get in touch if you're interested.

Participant quotes

For me, it was a big step to join a feedback group such as this, share my writing and be open to however it is received. I could not have asked for a better group to have joined. I’ve felt honoured to be part of a group of such talented, skilled and encouraging writers. I’ve so appreciated your words of support and the quality and rigour of your feedback. I’ve always felt that you’ve had confidence in the latent poet within me and want her to write her best. Steph Delany

Thanks to Cath Drake for having had the genius to connect poets across the world via Zoom from her home in London during COVID. To all the lovely poets in Cath's critiquing group, thank you for insightful and thought-provoking feedback that inspires, renews and sharpens the poetic eye and ear.  Rita Tognini, from the acknowledgements in her first collection ‘Almost Like Home’

The Facilitator:  Australian Cath Drake has a calibrating eye for poetry. Her collection The Shaking City (Seren Books), highly commended in the 2020 Forward Prizes and longlisted in the international Laurel Prize. It was described by Philip Gross as ‘a guide to staying clear-eyed, combative and caring in unsettling times.’. It follows Sleeping with Rivers which won the Seren/Mslexia poetry pamphlet prize and was a Poetry Book Society choice. Cath has been published in anthologies and literary journals in Ireland, US and Australia, recently in the Best Australian Poems 2022 anthology, Plumwood Mountain Journal and The Weekend Australian. She has twice been awarded second place in the international Ginkgo Eco-poetry Prize, also highly commended in this prize, and shortlisted for the Manchester and Bridport poetry prizes. She has been writer-in-residence at KSP Writers' Centre in Australia and The Albany in London. She’s also an award-winning journalist and mindfulness teacher.

You can check your timezone against London UK time here: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

More events here https://www.cathdrake.com